Chapter 7 Dead Silence when the Dusk Occurs

"The only way forward is for man to actually make a choice: Suicide, leap of faith, or recognition."

- Albert Camus

Day 1: 5:00 P.M.

Kirishima High School - Clocktower- Kaze's base/Secret Room

Time before the Night: 1 hour left

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The sky slowly turned from orange to black. Though it is still 5:00 in the afternoon, the sky slowly turned darker and the howling of the dead can be heard most of the time. Gunshots and screams lingers around the area and all of those noises enters the quiet room in the clocktower. The eerie feeling on the room permeates the surroundings and even a slight drop of sweat on the floor echoes inside the room.

In the room, a young man with black hair wearing a uniform with chessboard colored collar kneeling on the floor, both hands tied up behind him and he is also blindfolded with a drenched handkerchief. On the other hand are three girls and a boy in the corner of the room, silently witnessing the events unfold before them. Beside the black haired guy, a bonnet wearing kid with headphones resembling to horns connected with a dangling portable mp3 player is standing next to the kneeling guy, pointing his revolver on the temple of the kneeling guy. His brown hair sways to his movement though only a minor movement. The kneeling guy is Kaze and the person holding the revolver is Kyosei. The three girls are Miyuki, Sena and Nanami while the boy is Nejima.

The revolver cocks as Kyosei slowly pulled the trigger. Kaze almost stopped breathing, as the gun slowly cocks empty. Kaze signed in relief but he tenses up hearing Kyosei again.

"Count or your death is eminent. Don't waste my time, *sshole," Kyosei said as he push the gun on Kaze's temple harder.

"F*ck, f*ck! A-alright, alright I-ill count!"

"Go!"

"O-one!" Kaze stammers as he counted to his death.

Kyosei pulls the trigger slowly and as Kyosei do it, Kaze's mentality is slowly dropping down and he don't know if he can still keep the sanity of his mind. The gun's trigger is slowly pulled again and Kaze is getting crazy. He didn't expect that building his own kingdom of harem and orgy leads to this torture. The pressure of not being able to see the revolver on his temple.

Kyosei did not directly look towards Miyuki and the group but he can sense how tense the girls and the boy are. Except for Miyuki who has a strong willpower, the others feel it hard to see these things happening. He waved his hands to Miyuki.

"Hey, annoying," Kyosei calls on Miyuki.

"Who are you calling annoying?!" Miyuki retorted but composes herself again. Kyosei is not bothered and continued.

"Send them outside, I did not hear them talk or even irked at all since earlier. Maybe they are not used to this. Let them out of this room for a bit and let me handle the rest here. They might see a live human execution if they keep on watching here. Do not worry since Souichi is outside near the clock gears. Meet me there after I am done with this piece of crap here," Kyosei looked again on Kaze with a glare and even Kaze who is blindfolded can feel the stare to him.

"O-oh, I see, okay let's do that," Miyuki nodded and she led the others out of the room.

The grip on the revolver tightens and fiery eyes appear on the bonnet wearing boy.

"Let's continue your trip to hell, vice president!"

"Noooooo!!!!!!"

.....

Kaze did not last for five rounds and fainted. He did not really put a bullet on the revolver and the reason he covered Kaze's eyes is to avoid Kaze finding out that the revolver is loaded and regain his sanity. He knows this kind of torture using the "Blind Knife" technique where a person is deprived from his eyesight by covering his eyes with a blindfold. With a knife and a glass of water, you act like you sliced up the wrist of the person using the blunt edge of the weapon and slowly, you pour the water on the wrist you are slicing with slowly to act as blood. The person who is blindfolded will panic and will slowly turn insane the longer you perform it. Despite being sliced in a blunt edge of the knife, the human mind deprived with eyesight will produce stimulus that will let the person experiencing the torture thinks that the water is his blood gushing out from his wrist. This is a very clever torture technique without harming someone and can even let the tortured person spill the beans. Same as he did during the Russian Roulette that he did on Kaze. Kyosei tied up all of the lackeys in the corners of the room, without a single thing on their reach. He tied up Kaze upside down in the room and after doing the deed, Kyosei loaded the revolver again and looks around the base of Kaze.

The base contained some loots that can be used for survival. He picked up the colt 45 that Kaze thrown earlier and stuff it on his waist. He made sure that it is in safe mode. Though he is not familiar with this gun, he already know some of its functions from the games he played in the past. He looked around some more and found a bag of bullets in the closet. He picked abag in the closet and stuffed it with food and water bottles from the fridge in this room. Also, he found a few baseball bat inside the closet. These will be useful for his team for now. Scrounging in the drawers, he found a shiny and brand new brass knuckles in the closet! This weapon is deemed illegal in Japan but many gangsters own this stuff. Even the colt 45 he picked up earlier is illegal!

In Japan, firearms and swords are illegal and only a few people can get a their hands on these things. In fact, you need to get a license of you want to own a legal firearm! Now that the apocalypse is here, only police officers and soldiers has the main access and much more lucky to own and able to wield firearms freely. Though most soldiers are equipped with high caliber guns, police can usually own a single gun for police use only which is Smith And Wesson .38 military and police revolver model 12 or just model 12 in short.

Kyosei is lucky to get his hands on the colt 45 as it is super rare to obtain one. He even wondered how Kaze laid his hands on this gun as it is usually found in the underground businesses. Kyosei examined the magazine of the gun and founds out that it has a 10 bullet capacity. Kyosei nodded seeing the edition of colt 45 he has right now is an extended edition. Finished on his examination on the gun, he rummages around the area and manages to find a glove used by motocross riders. Apparently, it can also be used as a parkour glove, great for avoiding injuries in his hands. Equipping the gloves, he felt a sense of satisfaction on himself. He stared at the unconscious Kaze and wondered who the heck is the connection of this kid. After a few minutes, he stopped pondering and shook his head. His head hurts just by thinking the face of Kaze.

After making sure that the people tied up in the room cannot and were not going to be successful in escaping their binds, Kyosei packs up the food and water on a bag he found earlier. Kyosei leaved the room and blocks it after he exits. These guys will be fortunate enough to live for at least ten days or less, depending on the person. It is easy to starve for a while since a human body can survive for at least 21 days without food but water is different and can kill any person in the span of 10 days or less. Without water, dying in dehydration is much easier to acquire than to the person without eating at all. Also, if they managed to escape their bindings, the dead are most likely going to feast them like happy meal...

Day 1 5:10P.M

Kirishima High School - Clocktower Gear area.

Time before the Night: 50 minutes left

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When Kyosei returns to the area where Souichi and the others are staying, Souichi and Sena are treating the wounds of Nanami, Nejima and Miyuki since Sena is already treated. Kyosei ignored them and checked the lackeys. Earlier, he tied them with rope, now, the lackeys are also tied u with chains. Kyosei checked the lackeys and notice that they are still in their state of unconsciousness and the huge bumps on their foreheads and some are even bleeding. Looks like Souichi is much more dangerous than him in terms of interrogation. Miyuki who is already treated by Sena walked towards Kyosei.

"I forgot to tell you that I am grateul to you and even go to the length of rescuing me," Miyuki smiled.

Kyosei glared at her. For him, being thanked feel so awkward and sends shiver on his spine.

"Tch, save it, I don't need your sh8*tty thanks. I can't eat and use that stuff," Kyosei answered and fiddles his headphones which he proceeded to increase its volume and looks away from her.

Miyuki is speechless. Kyosei did not change his cold attitude at all. Sena patted her in the shoulder as she looked at Kyosei.

"Looks like the rumors are true, Kyosei is one of a cold-hearted persson. Though I appreciate him rescuing as like that so easily, this guy never plans to talk with us," Sena groaned.

"Me too, when he was still in elementary, we are very close to each other. See that bonnet he is wearing?" Miyuki points at Kyosei's hat and Sena nodded.

"That bonnet is a gift that came from me when he was celebrating his 10th birthday," Miyuki sighed,

Hearing this, Sena cannot help but frown. Since Sena and Nejima are the only people out of Kyosei's "Former Friends", she didn't know this at all.

"Seriously? He is not a delinquent since elementary just how like the rumors goes?" Sena was surprised.

"I don't know the reason for his change, but I still remembered that he changed when he celebrated his 13th birthday and came home in a bad mood that time and thought that he is a problem or something similar to that. But the next day, he is covered in bruises and wounds. When I tried to treat him, he glared and ignored me and didn't treat me as a friend anymore. He even keeps on shoving me away from him," Miyuki said sadly.

Again, Sena is surprised as the revelation of Miyuki makes the information hard to sink in her mind. She knows that Kyosei is a well known delinquent who keeps on seeking trouble and the rumors said that he is already a troublemaker since elementary. She even know Kyosei's "DEMON HORN" headset as a trademark.

"If he became a cold-hearted guy, why won't you stay away from him?" Sena asked Miyuki. She smiled bitterly as Miyuki heard Sena's question.

"He is a good person and helps other people without hesitation. The only thing he sucks at is the low social interaction. It gets much worse now when he turned into a delinquent," Miyuki sighed.

Nejima approached the two girls and joined their conversation.

"I think Kyosei-senpai is just a troubledindividual. In the end, he saved us all from Vice President Kaze Tsukiyama, so why would we need to complain?" Nejima said with wonder.

Miyuki sadly smiled on Nejima.

"Thanks for understanding Ichi, Nejima-kun," Miyuki said.

"Ichi?" Sena interrupted.

"Ah, sorry, we used to call him Ichi. It's his nickname during our elementary days and an old friend named Kato gave it to him," Miyuki said.

Hearing their conversation, Kyosei cannot help but interrupt with a frown in his face. Despite the loud and upbeat music of his horned headphones, he can still hear their chatters about him.

"You friggin morons, if you talk behind my back, talk farther away from me or if you can't see me at all," Kyosei groaned.

Miyuki looks down in embarassment and guilt while Sena and Nejima is stunned. How good is the hearing ability of this kid?

*BEEP*

An electric sound came from the laptop of Nanami as she booted the laptop that Souichi carried earlier when they arrived on a first year classroom. Kyosei did not stop him because he knows Nanami is a young talented hacker who got inspired on a game from the company UBISOFT which is entitled as "Watchdogs" and got a bit on inspiration on hacking. Now, she is very good in hacking electronics and others without problem. She even goes real far on this as she can also modify electronics on her whim and that includes the waterproof and solar powered headphones and mp3 player he keeps on wearing! Kyosei approached Nanami and his eyebrows meet together as he stare on the laptop screen in which Nanami is using to launch a software she specifically made to hack networks and begins on hacking.

"Brat, what are you doing," Kyosei groaned.

"Hacking the network of the school, stinky- senpai!" Nanami answered while still focused on the laptop screen.

"....." Kyosei frowned again.

Kyosei looked at Souichi with a question in his eyes which the latter already understood and just answered with a proud tone.

"Nanami can hack anything as long as it can be hacked. If it is about decoding sh*ts and stuffs, Nanami can do it without problems," Souichi grinned.

"Brother, I don't hack human waste and feces, are you sick?" Nanami said with a mocking tone on Souichi's praise which makes Souichi frown.

Nejima clearly showed his admiration on Nanami and even sits beside her. Nanami noticed him and smiled which makes Kyosei frown. This kids are still young brats and yet they are already lovey dovey to each other?! Miyuki and Sena are also amazed in her skills!

"Stinky Ichi-nee, you clearly do not show any appreciation on my skills, remember who made that stinky headphones and mp3 player of yours," Nanami grinned evilly to Kyosei.

"Tut...my name is Kyosei and stop calling me that sh*tty nickname! I am not a number! And also, don't call me stinky you brat!" Kyosei growled hearing his nickname again which literally means as 1 in japanese.

Nanami grinned hearing that and continued her assault to the laptop by rapidly typing codes and likes. A few seconds later, she stretched her arms and looks at them cheerfully.

"Hacking Success! Luckily, the network is still running!" Nanami smiled and begins on browsing the browser of the laptop and searches on the web on videos and news on the Osaka vicinity. A newscaster clearly showing a flustered and panicked look appeared on the screen. Behind her is the large and famous tower in Osaka.

"W- we are live here at Tsutenkaku. We can clearly see the Osaka Police Armed Unit and the Self Defense Force are currently deployed here near the tower to protect the refugees that are temporarily quarantined in the meantime as the infected are currently making chaos on the Nishinari Ward and currently destroyed Tennōji Station just a couple of minutes ago. We are currently trying to-"

*BANG!!!*

A loud gunshot is heard in the audio and shows that the camera shakes a bit and fear is clearly shown in the video.

"Oh my God!! The infected are here! The SDF are shooting them!

(BANG!! BANG!! BANG!!)"

Before the newscaster can can continue on her report, she was clearly seen being pounced by an undead and got bitten. Scream echoes to the reporter as the camera man runs towards the SDF and the Osaka Police Armed Unit only to be mangled by the undead and being shot by the soldiers. The transmission ended after that. Kyosei sighed. He looked at his watch and saw that only 10 minutes left before 6 in the afternoon. Even they are high up in the clocktower, the growls and some gunshots rang in the school grounds surroundings. Kyosei looked at the clear glass in the clocktower. The sun has slowly sets in the horizon and dusk slowly disappear. At the same time, the sounds that the undead made from earlier quiets down and sends shivers down to their spine. Holding tightly to the baseball bat and the revolver, Kyosei is hoping a silent and peaceful night despite the danger of the undead...